By Alex Dobuzinskis and Andrew Hay

October 11, 2019 — 1.46pm

Los Angeles: California's Governor Gavin Newsom called a widespread electricity shutdown triggered by a power company to prevent wildfires "unacceptable," saying on Thursday it resulted from years of mismanagement by the utility.

A major utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, imposed unprecedented shut-offs that left more than 600,000 homes and workplaces without power on the second day of planned outages, as gale-force winds and dry weather posed a critical fire threat in northern California.

Firefighters battle the Sandalwood Fire as it destroys homes in the Villa Calimesa Mobile Home Park in Calimesa, California. Credit:AP

Some of the state's most devastating wildfires were sparked in recent years by damage to electrical transmission lines from high winds, with flames then spreading through tinder-dry vegetation to populated areas.

Newsom, a Democrat, told a news conference he did not fault the utility for shutting off electricity as a safety measure, but he described the outage as too broad.

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"We're seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience," Newsom said. "What's happened is unacceptable and it's happened because of neglect."

The remarks were the most pointed comments Newsom has directed at PG&E since the outages began early on Wednesday. Among the questions he raised was whether the utility is too large, with a service area covering more than 40 counties.

He also faulted PG&E for putting what he called "greed" ahead of investments in its infrastructure to protect the electrical grid from dangerous winds.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019, citing potential civil liabilities in excess of $US30 billion ($44 billion) from major wildfires linked to its transmission wires and other equipment.

PG&E chief executive Bill Johnson acknowledged that his company had left "millions of people" without a "fundamental service" they expect and deserve.

A helicopter makes a water drop on a brush fire in Reche Canyon, California.Credit:AP

"This is not how we want to serve you," he told a media briefing in San Francisco, adding that PG&E "was not adequately prepared" for such a large power outage.

As high winds moved south, a similar cutoff was under way by neighbouring utility Southern California Edison, which warned that more than 173,000 customers could lose power in parts of eight counties – including Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura.

Residents, business owners and even public officials expressed frustration about the blackouts, which the utility began on a much smaller scale last year during times of high fire-risk.

"Northern California is not a Third World country," the San Jose Mercury Statesman said in an editorial. "It's unacceptable that the region is being forced to endure this level of disruption as the long-term strategy for dealing with the threat of wildfires."

Pointing the finger: California's Governor Gavin Newsom.Credit:AP

PG&E, California's biggest investor-owned utility, said it had restored power to 126,000 customers by Thursday morning but a further phase of cuts was expected to hit 4000 more.

Power will be restored to areas once up to 124 km/h winds die down and 4025 km of transmission lines could be inspected.

"We faced a choice between hardship or safety, and we chose safety," PG&E's senior vice president of electric operations Michael Lewis said in a statement.

The National Weather Service said the hot gusty winds that usually hit northern California in October, sometimes called the "Diablo Winds", will continue into Friday morning.

Much of northern California, from San Francisco to the Oregon border, remains under a state "red flag" fire alert, although no major blazes have been reported.

"As soon as the weather passes, PG&E will begin safety inspections with 6300 field personnel and 45 helicopters standing at the ready once we get the all clear," the utility said in a tweet on Thursday.

Oakland supermarkets brought in refrigeration trucks to save food and Montclair businesses like Laurie Shepherd's dental clinic were unable to tell patients when they would reopen.

"We don't know what tomorrow will bring," said Shepherd by phone, after she tore a tendon rushing to prepare for the outages. "We were just left up in the air."

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Michael Wara of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment estimated the economic cost of the shutdown could reach $3.7 billion, with small businesses hit hardest as they typically lacked back-up generators.

In Santa Rosa, a California wine country town where entire subdivisions were destroyed by a deadly 2017 wildfire, restaurateurs Mark and Terri Stark said they had to close one of their six restaurants after it lost power.

"This is preventative medicine and medicine sometimes is not good to take," said Mark Stark, 60, who lost one restaurant in the 2017 blaze. The fires in that region killed 46 people.